Transcript - Radio Interview re Pharmacies

DR BILL GLASSON: Morning, how are you this morning?

COMPERE:                            I'm fine.  So what do you think about what John Bronger has to say there, is it reasonable or not?

BILL GLASSON: I mean most of what John says is benign.  Can I suggest that pharmacists and doctors, and pharmacists' role particularly in advising people on medication - you know, what is the medication, what adverse impacts it has, how it may interact with other drugs - that's the pharmacists' role. 

                                               And I want to make clear to the public this is not about pharmacists and doctors.  This is about pharmacies.  This is about the people who actually own and operate the pharmacies.  And this is one of the most protected industries in this country.  In fact, it lies outside the ACCC regulations in many respects.  In other words, I can't own a pharmacy but a pharmacy can own a doctor or medical practice.

COMPERE:                            Mmm.

BILL GLASSON: So, it's a very protected industry.  One billion of the five billion that goes into the PBS goes directly into pharmacies and I suppose what we're saying is that I think we should sort of have a review of that set up because it is the fastest growing area in the health sector.  And as you know there's a huge amount of pressure coming on the PBS to try and sort of rein it back.

So I think part of that review should be looking at how we actually, how pharmacists actually operate at the moment and, particularly around the area of generics, these are drugs that come off patent, they're often a lot cheaper.

COMPERE:                            So does this go back to my example of the man who died with cartons full of puffers?

BILL GLASSON: Well that's part of it exactly, I mean obviously part of the - I mean, I think we need to make sure that people that are prescribed medication take it and that's part of the pharmacists' role to talk to the patient, as it is the doctors' role.

COMPERE:                            Yes.

BILL GLASSON: It's often hard when patients doctor-hop or pharmacy-hop but I think there needs to be more checks in the system, so if you are dispensed a prescription drug that it can be checked down the line to make sure that you're not being sort of over prescribed so to speak.

COMPERE:                            Well now doctor you've been quoted here, I'm just having a look, this I believe is from your actual media release.  It says here, AMA President Dr Bill Glasson branded moves by the Pharmacy Guild of Australia to have pharmacists usurp some of the core public health functions of community GPs as mischievous, irresponsible and a poor prescription for Australian patients.  So you've been pretty scathing.

BILL GLASSON: I totally concur with that.  You know, that's - I would reiterate that again, is if you have fragmented care where if someone comes in and a pharmacist decides to vaccinate a child or decides to do a blood sugar level...

COMPERE:                            Mmm.

BILL GLASSON: ...and try and address that in isolation of the whole patient - in other words if you might be on some diabetic medication, maybe on some hypertension medication, you need someone controlling that care, and that has to be the GP.

Now obviously nurses get involved here, allied health, pharmacists, and we always work very well as a team, but the buck has to stop somewhere and that buck has to stop with the general practitioner.  So if the general practitioner doesn't know what's going on then it really leads to poor continuity of care and we don't think that's in the best interests of the patient.

COMPERE:                            The buck doesn't extend to the pharmacist, and as you point out it's a very big buck.

BILL GLASSON: It is a big buck, it's a huge buck and I suppose what we're saying to the Government - or we'll be saying to the Government, I'll be speaking to them today - is I think given the fact that this pharmacy agreement's coming up for review now, I think we should have an inquiry into the whole thing and work out that the money that is going in is going in appropriately...

COMPERE:                            Might be a good time for a spring clean, hey?

BILL GLASSON: Absolutely.  I think it's time we looked at the whole system and rejigged it because it's a huge growth area in our costs centre in health and we've got to make sure we get the best bang for the buck, and more important the patients out there are getting the most cost effective medication. 

                                               Because of the fact that pharmacies cannot be operated side by side, because of the special legislation they have - you've got to be two kilometres apart I think is the figure - means there's very little competition in the system, and it seems to be the only group that is regulated to the extent that they protect themselves very, very, very totally.

COMPERE:                            Doctor, I appreciate your comments this morning...

BILL GLASSON:            Thanks very much.